"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Cutting Education

If you thought the recession's impact on schools was swift and immediate, think again. Sure - revenues dipped, but stimulus funds made things less worse than they would have been otherwise. Now that those funds are nearly entirely gone...

The cumulative effect of four consecutive years of lagging revenues has led to budget-cutting of historic proportions. An analysis of newly enacted state budgets shows that budget cuts will hit education, health care, and other state-funded services harder in the 2012 fiscal year – which started July 1, 2011 – than in any year since the recession began.

The full report, just released today, notes that "23 states have enacted identifiable, deep cuts in pre-kindergarten and/or K-12 spending." Ouch. Read their full report here.